HMP Holloway was the largest women's prison in Europe, historically holding numerous infamous female criminals and eliciting intrigue and fascination from the public. The End of the Sentence:Psychotherapy with Female Offenders documents the rich and varied psychotherapeutic work undertaken by dedicated specialists in this intense and often difficult environment, where attempts to provide psychological security were often undermined by conflicting ideas of physical security.

Women commit crime most often in the context of poverty, addiction and transgenerational violence or trauma, familial cycles of offending and imprisonment which are often overlooked. Using personal testimony and case studies, and screened through the lens of psychoanalytic theory, the book examines the enduring therapeutic and relational endeavour to find connection, closure and to experience a "good enough" ending with prisoners when the possibility of a positive new beginning often seemed remote. It also considers how the cultural and political discourse remains hostile towards women who are incarcerated, and how this may have culminated in the closure of the only female prison in London.

Through insightful real-life accounts, this insightful book also emphasizes the importance of professionals finding ways of supporting one another to offer women who have entered the criminal justice system a way to leave it. It will prove fascinating reading for forensic psychotherapists, forensic psychologists and criminologists, as well as anything interested in the criminal justice system.

Pamela Windham Stewart has worked for over twenty years as a psychotherapist in a number of prisons where she has developed and facilitated therapy groups for mothers and babies who are incarcerated. Pamela lectures widely and is the founder of the Saturday Forensic Forum. She has a private practice and is a clinical supervisor.

Jessica Collier is an art psychotherapist and clinical supervisor working with women in the female prison estate. She lectures widely on forensic art psychotherapy and her published work focuses on trauma and unconscious re-enactments in forensic institutions. Jessica is co-convenor of the Forensic Arts Therapies Advisory Group and visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire.

Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Series editor's foreword

Editors and contributors

Foreword by estela welldon

Introduction

References

PART I: Prison and the symbolic mother

Chapter one

The violence of austerity

Introduction

The history of organisations in HMP Holloway

Working in the prison

The prison as mother

Autonomy and independence

The importance of the relationship

The closure of Holloway

Moving on

References

Chapter two

Twenty years in prison: reflections on the birth of the Born Inside project and psychotherapy in HMP Holloway

Who's holding the baby? Containment, dramatherapy and the pregnant therapist

Introduction

Background

Finding a safe space

Bringing in the baby

"The Red Shoes": shame, scars and surviving the uncontainable

The mirror

Too close for comfort: no safe place

Conclusion

References

PART II: Working with institutional dynamics

Chapter four

Encountering HMP Holloway: a conversation

Endnote by Karen Rowe

Chapter five

Challenges: working at the boundary of confinement and freedom

Introduction

The environment

The work

Deprivation, envy and territory

The deprived

The envious

The territorial

The final verdict

References

Chapter six

Parallel endings: a personal reflection on the closure of HMP Holloway

Overview

The prison

The women's health

The limits of management

The psychological therapies service

Pulling the strands together

The ending

References

PART III: Living in prison

Chapter seven

Living and dying: a journey through the life cycle of the Onyx art therapy group for women from overseas

Introduction

Background

Birth

Childhood

Adolescence

Separation

Transition to adulthood

Mid-life crisis

The aging process

Looking towards death

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

References

Chapter eight

"I will never get out of here": therapeutic work with an Imprisonment for Public Protection prisoner caught up in the criminal justice system

Introduction

Meeting Jenny

Cycles of offending

The therapeutic relationship

Life in prison

Working in therapy

Time passing

Re-enactments

Epilogue

References

Chapter nine

"I could do it on my eyelashes": holding the unthinkable for the unthinking patient

Introduction

Queen Lizzie

Lizzie in the prison

Lizzie in the group

Lizzie in the minds of the therapists

Approaching an ending

Final thoughts

References

PART IV: Prison and society

Chapter ten

Holloway and after: from loss to creativity

An overview

My role in the prison

Supervision

The women

Beverley: the persistent offender

Carol: the mother on the mother and baby unit

A personal perspective

Ending

Looking forward: Holloway United Therapies

Conclusion

References

Chapter eleven

Trauma, art and the "borderspace": working with unconscious re-enactments

Introduction

Art making as a way to survive trauma

Trauma re-enacted in prison

Working with art and trauma

References

Afterword

References

Index

"Most of the women in our prisons are troubled rather than troublesome. This book records the efforts of some remarkable people who worked in Holloway prison to help women turn their lives around." Baroness Jean Corston